Excellent thriller. Marshall writes exceptionally well. ( )

Smooth, smart, thriller, brilliantly written as always and full of strange dark things. A bit more derivative than you might usually expect from Michael Marshall Smith, as it's going to be hard to read it and not be reminded of The Game. But that's okay, it's a lot better and a lot scarier than The Game. ( )

Bill Moore is an ambitious estate agent with a plan to go places - until he finds a card on his desk that says "MODIFIED". After an email he didn't send, an Amazon order he didn't place, and some photos he didn't take, everything he cares about unravels - and he finds himself the subject of a game played by the rich and powerful - who may not be the people he thinks they are. MMS delivers as usual with a clever set-up, smart prose, and those haunting insights into the human condition that set him apart. Having found The Intruders and Bad Things 'fine' but not entirely compelling, Killer Move is a return to form that left me wondering why I haven't read more MMS recently. ( )

As Michael Marshall Smith, Marshall writes sf/horror I really enjoy. As Marshall, he writes thrillers whose implausibility lies more in serial killer conspiracy theory than in high technology or eldritch visitors; this leads the thrillers to present an especially grim view of human nature. This one involves a shallow everyman with ambitions to be More (more of what is not something that crosses his mind) who starts to find little things changed around him, with the message “modified.” This quickly escalates from pranks to something much worse. Marshall is always a sharp writer; I particularly liked the description of a Ben & Jerry’s as having “the air, as usual, of having recently withstood a concerted attack by forces loyal to some other ice cream manufacturer.” I’ve been to a few Ben & Jerry’s stores like that. As much as I like the writing, I wish he’d write more as Smith. ( )

The jury's still out on Michael Marshall (Smith). A British author who sets his novels in the States (usually alternate realities thereof), I loved One of Us, written under his sci-fi name, but seem to have stalled halfway through Only Forward, his first novel, and I'm not sure what to make of Killer Move either. Clever, but sometimes too clever, would seem to sum up Marshall Smith's style.

Killer Move is a whacking great cynical warning for the modern world - a cautionary tale about being 'modified' by greed and ambition. Bill Moore would seem to have everything - a successful career with plans to go into business for himself, a happy marriage, a good living in the Florida Keys. He also comes across as rather obnoxious, but the reader is obviously supposed to identify with him - especially when the cracks start to appear in Bill's perfect life.

Someone has stolen Bill's identity. At first, the clues are trivial and irritating - a book he didn't order, a joke he didn't send - but then Bill begins to realise that someone is playing a very dangerous game. Bill Moore is being 'modified', and his life is out of control - who can he trust to help him get back to who he used to be? The build-up is very deftly plotted, feeding on the paranoia of the technological age, but the climax, and the pantomime villains responsible for all the death and corruption, didn't quite work for me. Marshall's dystopian metaphor - 'You're not the cause, the be-all and end-all of anything. There's no house. There's no life. There's just you. A point and space in time' - is not only depressing, but stretched to breaking point by the end.

A dramatic, fast-paced thriller which will have you checking your e-mails and Amazon account, but lacking the quirky flair of Michael Marshall Smith. ( )